From the Prisons of Daesh to the Palaces of Leaders

Nadia Murad was kidnapped by Daesh militants after they overran Shingal in August 2014. After escaping she addressed world leaders at the UN Security Council.

Nadia was a normal 21 year old Yazidi girl when she was kidnapped by terrorists in Shingal, a town to the north of Mosul in northern Iraq. She has spoken bravely about the three months she spent held captive by Daesh, where she was subjected to torture and sexual abuse. She has shone a light on the brutality experienced by the women and children prisoners, with Yazidi girls regularly tortured and raped until they lost consciousness. Nadia herself was forced to convert to the Daesh interpretation of Islam, before she was stripped and repeatedly raped.

After three months of torture, she managed to escape, and now lives in Germany. In December 2015 she spoke to members of the UN Security Council, where she said Daesh use Yazidi women as “flesh to be traded”.

Later that month Nadia went on to meet both the Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi and the Greek President Pavlopolous, both of whom praised her courage in raising awareness of the heinous crimes committed by Daesh jihadists.

Subsequently there has been a concerted social media campaign to put Nadia forward as a candidate for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.